The Irish standard., 1887-07-16

feels angry, and his heart swells with ill.,
dignat1on.
'May God be our judge" he MUIR
murs, leaning his white head on his
breast.
t'Mikael, oh Mikael!'' are you asleep?
they call out.
"What?' responds the old nan, sis it
possible that 1 could have fallen asleep!
Never has such shame overtaken me be-
FORE
And with a practiced hand Mikael
seizes the ropes.
Down below the peasants are swarm
ing like an ant-hill. gold embroidered
banners are unfurled and cleaning in
the light. It is the procession moving
round the church, and melodious voices
reach the bell-ringer's ear.
''Jesus is risen, Alleluia?''
And this glad acclamat1on rejoices the
heart of the old man. It seems to him
that the candles burn with brighter
light, that the crowd is noisier, that the
banners Aoat freer in the air, and that
the wind bears aloft the hymns of the
faithful and the chimes OF the bells III
the same jubilant symphony.
Never had the old man rung his
chimes thus One would have said that
his whole heart had passed into their
vibrant tongues. The obbing bells
seemed to laugh and weep as they threw
out their peals of silvery music on the
air
And the stars too seemed brighter
while the variations breathed all at once
from flute of stone quivered through
the air and fell back Oh the village in
showers OF sweetness.
The bass predozninated, singing, as
it were. in his deep oyer-mastering
voice:
Jesus is risen, Alleluia?''
And the two trebles like children's
voices lost in concert OF males, striving
their utmost to out sing the others ring
clear and shrill:
'Jesus is risen, AZleluia?"
Then Mikael forgets the misery and
bitterness Of his life. He forgets that
he stands alone in the world like an old
tree shivered by the tempest. Listening
to the jangling of his bells as they sing
and weep, he fancies himself surrounded
by his sons and grandsons. He seems
to hear their voices, the loud voices of
the older ones, and the chirping treble
of the babbling infants singing III con-
cert to him of thehappiness he has never
known. And the old bell-ringer with
stifened arms and bent figure pulls
away at the ropes!
His heart beats with strange ecstacy
and the bells ring out with palpitatipg
sound:
We rejoice with the Joyous,
We sorrow with the sorrowing."
The people down below are listening:
to these wonderful chimes, and under
their breath they that neyer-no, never
had old Mikael rung his carillion thus.
Suddenly the great bell swung with a
conyulsive movement, and was still, the
tenors threw out few gurglipg trills,
then stopped as if to listen to the dying
complaint of the big bell a trembling
in the air.
Mikael has just sunk on his bench :.
Two tears, the last, are flowing down
his pallid cheeks.
His own chef-d'muYre had run his
knell.
i'm this poct1c sry1e can1orn1s
land agency offers job lots of soenary
and climate: On this Wednesday
afternoon, at one o'clock, at Louis
Hall on Fifth street, we sell at public
outcry to the highest bidder the Pact"
fc ocean, draped with western sky
of scarlet and gold; we will sell bay
flied with white-winged ships; we
will sell s. southern horizon trimmed
with a choice collection of purple
mountains carved in castles and tur-
rets and domes; we will sell 8 frost-
less. bracing, warm, yet unlanguld
mir. braided in and in with sunshine,
and odored with the breath OF flowers.
z.------~"---
LOCAL NOTICES,
The telephone Call Of The IR1sH
STANDARD is 1854.
John B. Pewters, retail liquor dealer,
l9 East 9Th St., {near cor. Wabasha),
St. Paul.